what is the best bait for bluegill??

[micah mack]

i need to learn more variety of baits. tell me what is the biggest bluegill you caught on that bait.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Tanks for the kind words, Bill. But compared to most of these other guys, I couldn't catch a fish in a barrel.
As for worms, I'm a bit rebellious. I don't buy many, I gather most of them from around my rural home.
There is an elderly man near me who sells worms and I will buy from him. But I do it to help put a little green in his pocket, more than anything.
For panfish, I prefer a smaller worm. Red wigglers are popular here (Lake Murray, SC). I would recommend those. They are right sized for bluegill, and are “warm" worms. This means they can thrive at room temp up to about 85 degrees, so no special handling is needed.

some of those I collect are real whoppers, 5-6", so I generally snip those in half. I also favor a slightly larger hook than most, a #6 baitholder. These are chunky hooks that don't get swallowed readily.AND which preselect for larger fish, since the little ones have a hard time getting them in their mouths.l They also hold the worm all the way up the hook shank. This helps hide the hook from the peering eyes of wary slab 'gill.

[Paul Adams]

To be honest, I haven't fished with bait for a long time.  However I was fortunate to learn how to fish from my dad, who fished nothing else but bait.  He was a bluegill specialist, and far and away, hands down, the bait of choice was catalpa worms.  I still remember driving back country roads to find a chewed upon catalpa tree. 

We also fished wild caught crickets, along with red worms and pieces of nightcrawlers, but when they were available, he fished nothing else but the catalpa worms.

[Powder River]

Conventional - worm on a jig under a bobber.

Fly fishing - wooly bugger.

 

[Jason Preslar]

Wow.....that's a loaded question for sure.....

In my opinion, the best baits/lures vary from one body of water to the next.....take your most productive lures and baits and try them out in different places.....sometimes my favorite tactics don't work that great at some places.....

Nightcrawlers/crickets/grasshoppers are phenomenal most of the time when dealing with live bait.....

Rebel's Crickpopper and some of the small Rapala Cranks are great too.....grubs and jigs are great also....

[christopher Mark Spivey]

Have to say I'm a cricket man myself.

[George Hedgepeth]

I find wax worms great early on, but by this time of year crawlers start to produce better.